Mark 2:18-28

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Question about Fasting

¹⁸ Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and people^[a] came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁹ Jesus said to them, “The wedding attendants cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. ²⁰ The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.^(A)

²¹ “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. ²² Similarly, no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins, but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”^[b]

Pronouncement about the Sabbath

²³ One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.^{(B) 24} The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” ²⁵ And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food, ²⁶ how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions?”^{(C) 27} Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath,^{(D) 28} so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”